Mount it or eat it?

[jaybassman]

Today on Muskegon Lake in an undisclosed area I caught a 12 inch perch which is a great size perch...and on top of that her belly is busting at the seams!! This is the biggest perch I have caught in 20 years of fishing...is it a mounter or eat it?

[filletandrelease]

eat it.

[Robert Hoover]

is it a trophy to you ? if yes than mount it either way 12 looks good i dont know much about youre lake either so maybe twelve is enormous?i lsc twelves are common 14 is a mounter and up.I put a stream run brown on the wall 1 cause it was a day before it closed and its colors were crazy and two i went to clean it and some guy told me he has trout fished for twenty years and never got one like that outta a stream so it was a trophy to me even though i dont trout fish but once a year..16 3/4 actually lost a bigger one at my feet that day:dizzy:.never got one over eight outta the same stream for three years now.i may never see another one like that ever again that i caught i guess is the way i lok at it!

[agross]

i love to eat , so i say eat it great fish none the less

[outdoor_m_i_k_e]

if ya want, if its obviously a trophy to you then mount it! I had a 10.5 inch gill mounted a few years ago and im still glad i did. . looks great to this day and is a good memory!

[stinger63]

if ya want, if its obviously a trophy to you then mount it! I had a 10.5 inch gill mounted a few years ago and im still glad i did. . looks great to this day and is a good memory!

Yeah ditto

[garyrodbender]

I would eat it,after catching more for good meal;)...Another option is, both.Eat it and have a replica made.It`ll taste and look good too!

[Big Frank 25]

I would eat it,after catching more for good meal;)...Another option is, both.Eat it and have a replica made.It`ll taste and look good too!

:yeahthat:

[Roosevelt]

:corkysm55 eat it.....then mount it.:p

[Huffy]

This is the biggest perch I have caught in 20 years of fishing...

If it were me, I'd mount it. Sounds like it satisfies the most important criteria for being a trophy; it's a nice fish and means something to you.

[steve1983]

mount it!!!

[lewy149]

there are much bigger in that lake, I've put more than my share of 12's in the deep fryer and well even the 13's and 14's, haven't got above 14.25 but I hit fifteen and I'll prolly mount it, keep fishing hard, in the summer we have been putting together limits of fish with 11 inch average out of the same big pond, you forgot to mention muskegon lake is connected out to lake Michigan

[DoninNe]

Both, get a replica.

[DocHoliday]

I've seen alot bigger in Lake MI. There are some real woppers in the big lake. I would hold out for a bigger one and eat the 12 incher.

[neil duffey]

if its a trophy to you, mount it... but good luck finding a replica 12 incher... i just looked through all of my catalogs and the closest i could find was a 13 1/4 length... an inch and 1/4 is alot bigger than 12 incher. either way i hope ya took alot of pictures of the fish when you caught it. i tell all my customers to take alot of pictures of fish they want mounted, as soon as they pull em from the water. nothing sucks more than going to pick up your fish from the taxi, and being disappointed in a generic painted fish... not saying the paint job is bad, but iv seena few guys disappointed that their fish didnt have the special markings it had when it came outta the water, because they didnt have pictures to give to the taxi. in turn getting a generically painted fish.

[Fabner1]

I caught a 14 inch Crappie once, years ago, and my buddy who was with me called up later that evening and told me he thought it would be a master angler fish. I said "too late he's in the frying pan"! I say eat him.

[Matt V]

12" is a pretty good fish from Muskegon lake, but there are a lot bigger one's in there. We catch several a year in the 12" - 14" range. Was it a lake MI "whitebelly" or a "yellowbelly"? If it was a yellow, I might get it mounted, if it is a white I would wait for a bigger one.

[kispiox2keys]

I don't mount fish. But if I were going to get a mount, I'd get a graphite replica. More durable, look great all that. I know there's a difference, but that's what I'd do.

12" perch is a nice perch though. Good eats!

[N M Mechanical]

your best in 20 years mount it
are there bigger yes but still a good fish

[fishfly]

yummy!

[AduntonLSSU]

12 isnt the biggest you will ever catch, caught 136 this fall averaging 10-12, biggest 14.5 but no money to mount :( . keep fishing for them, they're out there.

[irishjigger]

I would probably eat it, but like alot of guys are saying if you feel it is a trophy then get it mounted. Last year I caught a 15" 2#er through the ice...for me that was one I would never eat...now she's on my wall with my pike. Congrats on a nice fish either way!!

[JDECK]

mount it.Its your fish .If you catch jumbos 16" 17" 18" add them on a piece of drift wood. makes a great mount. good luck

[pointednorth]

NOPE not me, no trophy to really spend the money on. Any fish has to be bigger them my choppers to mount. id take that fish and measure it up, wait till ya catch another or so and then go to the Taxi and say here- mount these two bad boys togethor.

BUT for now, eat the slob. u got the size written down. thats my too cents.

[chuckwagon157]

When it comes down to it, a trophy is for you. I have a pike in the freezer that I am having mounted. It's 37 1/2 inches. A good sized pike, but not a monster. I am having it mounted because of how I caught it, it was a fight I will never forget, and it means something to me. Its all about what you think.

[billfishfinder]

Like most of the guys are saying if its a trophy to you mount it.I have caught many 12" perch over the years and they all hit the the frying pan.Take lots pic.and you will always remember that trophy.

[MoJoRisin']

Over the last several yrs my wife and I have got 13.5" perch (a few) in the shallows when fishing for gills. Yellow bellies. Over 1 lb each.

In a few yrs 12" white bellies will be common provided they keep coming back (from all of the activity this year there are lots of them - Muskegon Lake is a very large lake and us ice fishermen are just scratching the surface of the area that there are white bellies). From what I've heard there are perch from the channel all the way towards Hartshorn Marina (several miles long and up to a mile wide). These whites will turn into true jumbos in a few yrs.

My target for mounting is upwards to 14" - 15" for perch. Otherwise eat it!!

[TrekJeff]

Support your local Taxi and if you still have money for bait then go catch your limit of 8"ers :D

[mydogisscout]

Eat it...Then If you still want a MONSTER perch for the wall, just catch an average sized walleye and have neil do a super special perch paintjob for ya! :D

[fishyhands]

I caught a JUMBO gill yesterday. Probably the best I have ever seen. I should have had him mounted because when I filleted him the entire fillet was packed full of grubs. White,black and other. It made me sick to throw it away. From now on the jumbo gills go back in the hole when I am on that lake. Crappie are my eating fish ,big or small.

[duckhunter382]

If you have a boat then I would say eat it and go out this spring and catch a 16" or better out of the big lake, if you dont then mount it. My cousin went out with us a couple years ago and about died when he saw the size of the perch out there. He caught the first one of the day and the whole way up he kept saying there is no way this is a perch and I kept telling him it was, when it broke the surface I thought he was going to have a heartattack.